John Andrews

Dorothy Allison

Jericho Brown

Kevin Sessums

Will Stockton

D. Gilson

Mary Meriam

Derrick Austin

Sassafras Lowrey

Perry Brass

Dan Stone

Ed Madden

Cameron Mitchell

Miriam Bird Greenberg

Jeff Mann

Shane Allison

Richard Blanco

Randall Mann

Scott Wiggerman

Valerie Wetlaufer

Jason K. Friedman

TC Tolbert

Dan Vera

Del Shores

Darrel Alejandro Holnes

Evan J. Peterson

Joseph Osmundson

Christine Stroud

Jeffery Berg

Dustin Brookshire

Joey Connelly

William Cordeiro

C. Cleo Creech

James Croteau

J.K. Daniels

Nick Dephtereos

David Eye

Ellen Goldstein

Elizabeth Gross

Johnathan Harper

Scott Hightower

Matthew Hittinger

Rex Leonowicz

Tyler Lynn

Bo McGuire

Rangi McNeil

Kelly McQuain

M. Mack

Stephen S. Mills

Foster Noone

Eddie Outlaw

Seth Pennington

Kenneth Pobo

Brad Richard

Hannah Riddle

Laurence Ross

Liana Roux

Erin Elizabeth Smith

Billie Tadros

Annie Virginia

C.T. Whitley

Cristan Williams

L. Lamar Wilson

In The Queer South, Douglas Ray has assembled over 60 queer-identified voices exploring their experiences of the American South in nonfiction and poetry. From hilarious to heartbreaking, anxious to angry, religious to reluctant, contemplative to celebratory, this anthology expands our ideas of what it means to be queer and what it means to represent the land south of the Mason-Dixon. Included are Dorothy Allison, Shane Allison, John Andrews, Derrick Austin, Jeffery Berg, Richard Blanco, Perry Brass, Dustin Brookshire, Jericho Brown, Joey Connelly, William Cordeiro, C. Cleo Creech, James Croteau, J.K. Daniels, Nick Dephtereos, David Eye, Jason K. Friedman, D. Gilson, Ellen Goldstein, Miriam Bird Greenberg, Elizabeth Gross, Johnathan Harper, Scott Hightower, Matthew Hittinger, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Rex Leonowicz, Sassafras Lowrey, Tyler Lynn, Bo McGuire, Rangi McNeil, Kelly McQuain, M. Mack, Ed Madden, Jeff Mann, Randall Mann, Mary Meriam, Stephen S. Mills, Cameron Mitchell, Foster Noone, Joseph Osmundson, Eddie Outlaw, Seth Pennington, Evan J. Peterson, Kenneth Pobo, Brad Richard, Hannah Riddle, Laurence Ross, Liana Roux, Kevin Sessums, Del Shores, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Will Stockton, Dan Stone, Christine Stroud, Billie Tadros, TC Tolbert, Dan Vera, Annie Virginia, Valerie Wetlaufer, C.T. Whitley, Scott Wiggerman, Cristan Williams, and L. Lamar Wilson.

LGBTQ Writers on the American South

The Queer South

Amy Lowell's contemporaries, writing at a time when lesbians were invisible, described her as an old maid. But as Lillian Faderman argues, Lowell wrote "some of the most remarkable, barely encoded, lesbian poems since Sappho," while living in a Boston marriage with her muse, Ada Dwyer Russell. Lady of the Moon offers a combination of three voices on the Boston marriage of Amy Lowell and Ada Dwyer Russell. The first part contains a selection of Lowell's love poems to Ada. The second part contains a scholarly essay by Lillian Faderman that analyzes these poems in relation to Lowell's life. The third part contains a 27-sonnet sequence by Mary Meriam which draws from the first two parts and supports the story with imaginative details. In this jewel of a volume, a great love is reanimated. Imagist Amy Lowell's love poems to actress Ada Russell, pioneering lesbian-feminist scholar Lillian Faderman's landmark essay on Lowell and Russell, and contemporary poet Mary Meriam's heartfelt sonnet sequence speaking to Russell in Lowell's voice, combine to create a remarkable erotic and poetic event. Like Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Lowell and Russell had a great creative partnership that made an indelible mark on literary and lesbian history. Lowell called her "tense and urgent love" for Russell an "amethyst garden;" today's readers will find gems of all colors in Lady of the Moon. -Lisa L. Moore, author of Sister Arts: The Erotics of Lesbian Landscapes (Lambda Literary Award, 2012), and Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies, The University of Texas at Austin What an erotic trinity! Amy Lowell's fiery poems about Ada Dwyer Russell; Lillian Faderman's illuminating essay about the couple and their "Boston marriage"; and Mary Meriam's contemporary poems in Lowell's lustful voice. Forget "Amygism" and "Patterns": with this brilliantly edited selection of works by and about Amy Lowell, Mary Meriam restores Lowell to her rightful status as a groundbreaking feminist poet. -Julie Kane, National Poetry Series winner and recent Louisiana Poet Laureate Mary Meriam writes as Amy Lowell and her beloved Ada. She imagines, in a variety of sonnet forms, the richness that Lowell removed from her own love poems. While making use of Lowell's language, the sonnets' insistence on the psychological fullness of the two women and their relationship unsettles the century-old sounds so that a sense of quaint mimicry falls quickly by the wayside. The organization of the volume's three parts is astute, though, finally, these sonnets cohere into a whole of their own. -Marcia Karp, poet and translator

Lady of the Moon

Any art from a marginalized group is first dismissed as necessarily trivial or lesser because it doesn't value the same ideals as the mainstream. It is only through iteration and resilience that the markers used to keep us out become the elements for which we are prized. That's why a journal devoted to lesbian poetry and art is vital: it rejects tokenism; it makes visible the common themes between otherwise dissimilar writers and artists; and, most importantly, it shows the range and prowess of those who would otherwise be limited to one feature of their work. -Eloise Stonborough, on "Lavender Review" at "Ms." "Lavender Review, " born on Gay Pride Day, 2010, is an international, biannual e-zine dedicated to poetry and art by, about, and for lesbians, including whatever might appeal to a lesbian readership. This is "Lavender Review's" first foray into print, and represents a selection of poems from the first five years. The 48 contributors to this anthology include renowned and new lesbian poets; translations of Marina Tsvetaeva, Renee Vivien, and Sappho; some poems from the past by Amy Lowell, Charlotte Mew, Sara Teasdale, and others; and a few lesbian-friendly poems by straight and gay poets. ABOUT THE EDITOR Poet Mary Meriam is the founder of "Lavender Review, " co-founder of Headmistress Press, editor of "Irresistible Sonnets, " and author of "The Countess of Flatbroke, The Poet's Zodiac, " and "The Lillian Trilogy (Word Hot, Conjuring My Leafy Muse, " and "Girlie Calendar"). She contributes essays, reviews, and interviews to "Ms." Magazine Blog and "The Gay & Lesbian Review." ABOUT THE PUBLISHER Headmistress Press is an independent publisher of books of poetry by lesbians. As a small press, Headmistress is dedicated to honoring lesbian existence, discovering a range of lesbian voices, and promoting lesbian representation in the arts."

Poems from the First Five Years

Lavender Review

Mary Meriam is a rare and original poet. This is a dazzling book, a fusion of anguish and wit and song, written in clear and compelling language. I love the wildness, the inventiveness, the always surprising but accurate metaphors. She writes of real things, real people, always musically. She uses Mother Goose rhythms and rhymes or echoes of Sapphic meters or settings as grim as any of the Grimm Brothers' tales, to tell searing truths that move, frighten, and delight one with the skill of their telling. - Naomi Replansky, Author of The Dangerous World and Collected Poems Mary Meriam is a frightening poet, a frighteningly good poet. The intensity of her writing will frighten you, but also her technical skill. She can put a chill into the most common rhyme. The poems speak like "a gust of gorgeous / thundering swallows." She identifies her models as Christina Rossetti and Charlotte Mew, whose Goblin Market and "Farmer's Bride" rightfully haunt the collection. But her real soulmate is Thomas Lovell Beddoes, the ultimate poet of the queer and scary whose masterpiece, Death's Jest Book, was left appropriately unfinished. She may ask us to "unspook" her dreams, but we won't succeed. The uncanny is too engrained in her sensibility. All we can ask is that she continue to keep writing. - David Bergman, Poetry Editor of The Gay & Lesbian Review Mary Meriam is an accomplished technician and imaginative Mother Goose artist, who like Mother Goose (my favorite collection in the world), is almost always serious, even tragic, along with fun. I am floored by poems with lines like the opening of "I Learn Today My Mother Lied": "Not one drop of Jewish blood / in me or you!" my mother cried, / as if she had a drop to hide... We are lucky to have her dissident voice. - Willis Barnstone, American Poet Mary Meriam's new collection is a treasure chest of charm and trouble. Her sonnets, lyrics and chants show the best of the New Formalism, being personal but not ever inaccessibly private, and musical without a touch of pretense. There is life and sweetness in her approach, and reproach and rue as well. - Zachary Bos, Editor of Poetry Northeast Mary Meriam is a poet who takes risks, by which I don't mean what you think I mean. There's nothing risky about breaking rules that haven't been in effect since 1880. I'm talking about the modern rules, the new respectability, the advice given in poetry workshops by legions of successful poets whom no one reads. Mary doesn't give a shit about Pound's "don'ts," she's too busy writing fierce, gorgeous poems about love and pain. She's a true rebel, in all her heartfelt, singsong, vulnerable, girly glory. - Rose Kelleher, Anthony Hecht Prize for Bundle o' Tinder This is my kind of a poet. 'She speaks,' as Larkin said of the beautiful and wistful and utterly different Stevie Smith, 'with the authority of sadness.' She also speaks in the language of tradition. She uses old forms fiercely. She is rather a fierce poet. Oh, and a Lesbian. You can't ignore that. But what does she do? Do with words. Magic. Above all, Mary Meriam is a magic poet and if that is what you want (as I do) this is a book for you. - John Whitworth, British Poet

Conjuring My Leafy Muse

Mary Meriam

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